Adam Zak
Staff Writer
It has been a long 18 years since the last movie in the “Exorcist” franchise was released, and even more so for Ellen Burstyn, Regan’s mother Chris, in the first film back in 1977 as she makes her return. Linda Blair, Regan, also comes back, albeit more of a cameo as she is on screen for a brief moment at the end as she reunites with her mother.
“Exorcist: Believer” tries to stand out with two possessed characters this time with Katherine and Angela, two middle school best friends. Despite their close relationship, their parents hadn’t met until the pair got lost and possessed, and are the opposite of their daughters with hostility. Angela is an African American with a single father–her mother was hurt in an earthquake while pregnant with her and was sacrificed, which is also a driving force behind the possession; Angela wants to contact her mother, and Katherine is very religious and willing to help her friend. Katherine is white with very busy parents that are seemingly uptight as the father unknowingly and continuously beeps at Angela’s father in the school parking lot, and for reasons I will explain in the spoiler section.
The plot is rather cookie-cutter when it comes to “Exorcist” films and those similar, although it is pretty interesting when they explore the differences between how both families respond and react to a possession. One of the highlights of this was actually also shown in the trailer, with Katherine eerily repeating “the body and blood” in the middle of the pews at church after she disappeared from her parent’s sight, covered in wine and demonic looking makeup, akin to Regan in the first.
Despite this highlight, I still felt that the film was missing a little from Katherine’s family as they kept her at their house unrestrained, yet we only see the aftermath of that decision. Although there is a good bit of body gore/horror, especially with fingernails, there was a surprising lack of deaths which for double the demonic girls, was a let-down in my opinion.
Spoiler Central
As per the title, there are themes of believing and what that entails, mainly with Angela’s father, Victor. He constantly shows skepticism towards religion and rituals; he doesn’t care for the protection spell on Angela as a baby, doesn’t want another protection spell on their house, and is very hesitant to nurse and neighbor Ann who believes he should see a priest to handle Angela. However, Katherine’s family is said to be religious, yet we don’t see them going to a priest for an exorcism or anything about faith with them, which I thought was a missed opportunity.
Victor’s skepticism turns into belief with a scene that you can find in other “Exorcist” films, where the demon knows and exposes a person’s dark past; Ann tells Victor how Angela somehow knew about Ann’s outing from nuns when she had sex and an abortion right before she was to become a sister, not telling a soul about it. The belief strengthens as Angela shows off more of her demonic powers and with the help of spiritual guides Dr. Beehibe and Chris. I liked Chris’s role of being that guide as she really was the perfect one, having experienced possession and exorcism as a parent, like Victor. She too had faith that Regan was safe and hopefully would see her again, which like I said prior, does happen at the end of the film, but with a twist.
The ending I found all over the place; Ann takes it upon herself to get the priests to perform an exorcism, and when it comes to it, they suddenly refuse, prompting her to perform it (which obviously doesn’t work). I figured Ann would die during the exorcism, especially with how nice and caring she is for Angela in it, but the one death in the film comes with the priest who changes his mind and fatally attempts the exorcism. His head does turn all the way around similar to Regan’s in the first film, which I thought was cool.
The girls offer the parents a deal; pick one or the other, which was pretty obviously twisted and is, as Katherine’s dad picks her in a desperate attempt to get his daughter back when Angela is making a connection to her father through her mother’s scarf, causing Katherine to die and Angela to live. This doesn’t seem bad or really unexpected; however, I felt sad for Katherine as they show her die inside her head in a nightmare hearing her parents calling out for her and then suddenly getting dragged underwater. Mainly due to the fact that she got into all of this mess just trying to help her friend who missed their dead mother made it that more upsetting.
The very ending felt a little lacking too, as they briefly show Katherine’s parents, but not her two little siblings for some reason, and then quickly cuts to Angela at school who smiles at the very last second, lazily hinting that she’s still possessed for the assumed sequel.
Overall, I thought “Exorcist: Believer” was decent and at least entertaining, despite pretty negative reviews. However, there might be some recency bias as I just watched the first three films that had to do with Regan’s story, and this felt like a continuation of it even if it was formulaic and lacking in some aspects. It also had some refreshing nuances and themes about belief and its potential.
